The system of rice intensification, known as SRI is an agro-ecological methodology for increasing the productivity of irrigated rice by changing the management of plants, soil, water and nutrients. SRI originated in Madagascar in the 1980s and is based on the cropping principles of significantly reducing plant population, improving soil conditions and irrigation methods for root and plant development, and improving plant establishment methods.

SRI methodology is based on four main principles that interact with each other:

• early, quick and healthy plant establishment
• reduced plant density
• improved soil conditions through enrichment with organic matter
• reduced and controlled water application 

More than half the world's population relies on rice as a staple food and irrigated rice production is the largest consumer of water in the agricultural sector.

The system of rice intensification (SRI) helps to substantially increase rice production and reduces water consumption by an average of 40% and in some cases as much as 85%.¹ It relies on a significant reduction in the use of seed and can cost little or nothing to adopt.

SRI is now practiced in at least 50 countries and by as many as 5 million farmers - both on a small and large scale.

In 1983, French Jesuit Father Henri de Laulanié assembled the main elements of SRI in central Madagascar after working with local rice farmers over twenty years. Fr de Laulanié knowing that rice is the national staple food and provides more than half the daily calories consumed in Madagascar. wanted to help farmers to improve their productivity without being dependent on external inputs because Malagasy households had such little purchasing power.

In 1990, Fr. de Laulanié established an NGO, the Association Tefy Saina (which translated means: ‘to improve the mind’) to work with farmers, other NGOs, and agricultural professionals to improve rural production and livelihoods in Madagascar.  

This series of videos is about the adoption of SRI in East Africa by farmers who have learnt from and teach other farmers like themselves. They demonstrate how local farmers spread information about SRI through making contact with and visiting their fellow farmers, as the method travelled on its “learning route” from Madagascar to Rwanda, and then Burundi. to apply the knowledge and the significant benefits it has brought them.

The first video follows the spread of SRI by way of an initiative funded by IFAD in which farmers from Madagascar travelled to Rwanda for four months during 2008 to teach SRI methods. Rwandan farmers in turn shared what they learned about SRI in cross visits with Burundian farmers.

The subsequent four videos feature some of these farmers describing the principles of the methodology, and also sharing experiences regarding the impact of SRI.

These videos were developed in a partnership between IFAD and the SRI International Network and resources Center (SRI-Rice) based at Cornell University under the auspices of the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD). 

1/ (PAWE Special Issue Vol 9, No. 1 ed. Uphoff/Kassam - Review, p.169)